There is something undeniably courageous about picking up a Bible and reading it when you’re a high profile atheist with nearly 30,000 followers on Twitter. It’s kind of like eating factory farmed meat in a room of vegetarians—you’re going to face some consternation.

And yet that’s just what @MrOzAtheist did at the invitation of the City Bible Forum’s Rob Martin. The pair “met” on Twitter, and formed a virtual friendship, which became a real-life friendship, based around debating the claims of Christianity in a respectful way.

Rob and Donovan at CBF discussing the Bible.

So when Rob invited @MrOzAtheist to take up the challenge of reading the Easter story afresh and sharing his reflections with the City Bible Forum, the Twitter personality whose real name is Donovan, said yes.

“The exchanges that we’ve had have always been very pleasant,” Donovan says. “[When we met in person] I found him to be a nice guy and we’ve been in contact quite a few times since, so I was just very open to it when he asked me. I thought, ‘of course I’ll help you out.’”

Rob gave Donovan one of the City Bible Forum’s The Week That Changed the World booklets, which contained Bible readings and testimonies. Last week he joined Rob in a live discussion at CBF Melbourne about one of the readings—Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

Having grown up in a Catholic family, Donovan says he was a believer as a child. But while he’s read quite a lot of the Bible while studying arguments against Christianity, he says he hasn’t sat down and read a large chunk of it for a very long time. Until now.

So what did he make of it?

“There was a little bit of, ‘I can’t believe I believed that!’. And to me, the Bible now reads like what I think it is, which is a collection of stories and superstitions from an ancient people. Its crowning point, I guess, is the glimpse of life back then. It reads like an historical text from a small area of the world 2000 years ago.”

So no big epiphanies for @MrOzAtheist then. However, there was one realisation he came to while reading through the testimonies in the booklet: adults actually do become Christians.

“That was the most interesting part. I think even the first guy in the booklet, he grew up in a church-going household but didn’t consider himself Christian and he spoke to one of his colleagues, and their discussion led him to Christianity. And one of the other girls that I read about, almost a similar story. And that surprised me.”

“That’s what I find interesting, and that’s why I engage on Twitter. When I engage with theists on Twitter I ask them: why do you believe this? What convinces you? And it’s not to tell them they’re wrong, it’s not to tell them off for it. I’m genuinely interested in their motivation for belief, and that’s what I found interesting in these stories, why they believe.”

Donovan says he’s keen to help atheists and Christians realise they’re not as different from each other as they sometimes think.

“Part of what I like to get out is that we’re just people who don’t believe in God. We struggle to get to work, we go to the footy on the weekend as well. We’re not that different. It’s a surprise how little people know about us.”

Judging by Donovan’s newfound knowledge that un-churched and de-churched adults can actually become Christians, the reverse is also true: atheists need to learn a bit more about Christians. But that’s why it’s commendable both Rob and Donovan have sought to understand each other so thoroughly.

Asked for advice to Christians wanting to engage in more productive conversations with atheists, Donovan suggests having a good answer as to why you believe what you believe, and not going in with the attitude that you’re going to be able to change the person’s mind.

“I think if you want to engage with an atheist, introduce yourself and make it clear that you don’t want to convert the person, but you’re interested in discussing the topic. Say to the person, ‘This is what I believe and why. What do you make of that?’”

“If you go up to an atheist thinking ‘I’m going to convince you that God is real’, you’re not. They’re going to get defensive and it’ll be more argument than discussion.”

You can follow Donovon @MrOzAtheist or Rob Martin @MelbourneCBF on Twitter. Go to the CBF website to see other events being held in the lead up to Easter.

Image of Bible: Sir Joshua via Flickr used under a CC Licence.
Image of Rob and Donovan Sophie Timothy.